Four tech leaders from the Toronto tech community discuss the challenges of growing software development teams in this Achievers Tech Talk.
Peter Daly – VP Engineering, Achievers
Peter has an exemplary track record of delivering large scale information technology solutions to customers in a plethora of markets. Most notable are Health, Financial Services, e-commerce and Telecom. He joined the Achievers team in February 2013 with the primary goal of growing and scaling their development organization.
Jason Primeau – Director of Development, OANDA
Jay’s first task at OANDA was to put his desk and computer together. His second task was to re-craft the entire trading platform UI. Since then, Jay has grown a grass-roots development team to one praised by Wired Magazine as one of the top ten places to work outside of Silicon Valley. Jay implemented development best practices, methodologies, and strategies where none existed. As a result, Jay has an in-depth understanding of what makes (or breaks) development teams. Now, the development team that Jay directs can deploy 100+ releases a week to a production environment where users trade billions of dollars every day.
James Lochrie – Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, Wave Accounting
James has been in the accounting world for almost 20 years. He has experience in both accounting product development and working with small business owners. Before the launch of Wave, James led the technology team of one of Canada’s most successful small business accounting firms.
Oleg Gutsol – Co-Founder & CEO, 500px
Oleg came to Toronto from Ukraine to study Applied Computer Science at Ryerson University. While still a student, he started his first internet business. After that, Oleg became a software developer and designer who worked on creating user-first experiences for websites, mobile, and social networking apps. Since then, Oleg has integrated his passions — photography, software development, and business — into one of the world’s most successful and fastest growing global photo platforms. He wrote the initial code for 500px and set the standard for its high-quality design and simple, elegant interface. In addition, he is currently a mentor at Extreme Startups in Toronto.
